Red Sea Ammonia test reading help

[swiss1939]

I started my fishless cycle with Dr. Tim's One and Only 5 days ago on June 23. Prior to adding ammonia, I tested my water for ammonia using the Red Sea Ammonia kit and confirmed my water had no ammonia in it. I then added the 4 drops per gallon as instructed by his ammonia bottle. I roughly calculated based on my rock and sand that I have 6 gallons less than full tank stats for water, or 38 Gallons of water in the system. This is what I used to calculate the drops of ammonia. After doing that and waiting 24 hrs I tested my tank using the same Red Sea Ammonia kit and the color was darker than the highest color which should be 2ppm. I assume this means my ammonia is higher than 2ppm? I have tested every day since and gotten the same results with the red sea ammonia test kit at darker than 2ppm but close in terms of hue. I am slowly seeing nitrates and nitrites rise, so I know it is working, but I just want to confirm that I am right to assume the readings I am getting on the red sea ammonia kit mean that I am higher than 2ppm ammonia (beyond the test charts capability to read). The darkness of hue above the highest reading does seem to be very slowly approaching correct for 2ppm after 5 days without adding any extra ammonia.

I assume I miscalculated the amount of actual water in my system and just added too many drops of ammonia to start the cycle. So I probably have closer to 35 gallons of water in the system given the ammonia readings being much higher.

Photo attached below to get some confirmation this means higher than 2ppm?

Additionaly related, my red sea nitrate test always results in a solution that has lots of carbonation bubbles along the bottom of the testing container. Is this a normal process of the nitrate test kit or do I have some contamination on my nitrate test kit?

 

[Perthegallon]

I started my fishless cycle with Dr. Tim's One and Only 5 days ago on June 23. Prior to adding ammonia, I tested my water for ammonia using the Red Sea Ammonia kit and confirmed my water had no ammonia in it. I then added the 4 drops per gallon as instructed by his ammonia bottle. I roughly calculated based on my rock and sand that I have 6 gallons less than full tank stats for water, or 38 Gallons of water in the system. This is what I used to calculate the drops of ammonia. After doing that and waiting 24 hrs I tested my tank using the same Red Sea Ammonia kit and the color was darker than the highest color which should be 2ppm. I assume this means my ammonia is higher than 2ppm? I have tested every day since and gotten the same results with the red sea ammonia test kit at darker than 2ppm but close in terms of hue. I am slowly seeing nitrates and nitrites rise, so I know it is working, but I just want to confirm that I am right to assume the readings I am getting on the red sea ammonia kit mean that I am higher than 2ppm ammonia (beyond the test charts capability to read). The darkness of hue above the highest reading does seem to be very slowly approaching correct for 2ppm after 5 days without adding any extra ammonia.

I assume I miscalculated the amount of actual water in my system and just added too many drops of ammonia to start the cycle. So I probably have closer to 35 gallons of water in the system given the ammonia readings being much higher.

Photo attached below to get some confirmation this means higher than 2ppm?

looks like a 2 or higherI would stop the ammonia

 

[Perthegallon]

I wouldn’t water change though if it’s only a few but adding bacteria is always a great choice

 

[swiss1939]

looks like a 2 or higherI would stop the ammonia

Yes I have no plans on adding any additional ammonia until I see it drop to zero and the nitrites start to cycle downwards. I also ordered another bottle of Dr Tim's One and Only to add to my tank again to hopefully help seed the tank. I have a feeling the original bottle I added was stored too warm for a month before use (because I received it a month before I set the tank up with water) and I also had my powerheads on high when adding it so I think it prevented the bacteria from settling on the sand bed. I will add another bottle with the powerheads off for 45 min so the new bottle settles on the sand bed before turning power heads back on.

 

[DSEKULA]

If you want to get a reading you could do a dilution. Do 50% tank water with 50% rodi. Do your ammonia test then double the reading you get. It might help you see the reduction.

 

[swiss1939]

If you want to get a reading you could do a dilution. Do 50% tank water with 50% rodi. Do your ammonia test then double the reading you get. It might help you see the reduction.

Great suggestion! I will try that now to see if I can get an accurate reading over 2ppm.

 

[KoTS]

Also, for the nitrate test - that is normal. Directions say to gently shake before taking your reading to get rid of the air bubbles/any settling particles.

 

[swiss1939]

Also, for the nitrate test - that is normal. Directions say to gently shake before taking your reading to get rid of the air bubbles/any settling particles.

This is exactly what I have been doing, just wanted to make sure it wasn't something like contaminates in those ingredients or in one of the scoops.

Regarding the 50/50 diluted ammonia test, I see now that I have 2.4-3ppm ammonia with a reading of 1.2ppm, or slightly between 1.2 and 2 ppm on the color chart. I assume being 5 days above the 2ppm reading that I probably added 4-5ppm of ammonia on the first day.

This is a great suggestion and one that I will start using on my nitrites tomorrow as I have gone from 0 to 0.5 to 1 ppm (max on the color chart) over the past three days, so I expect tomorrow nitrites will be beyond the color chart's capability to read at full strength. Nitrates have held steady for a few days and only crept up slightly to 5ppm in 5 days.

Thanks for all the answers!